"It’s satisfying to find an answer that could contribute to a wider knowledge—a small piece of the puzzle that will lead to other answers in the future."
— Dr. Taran Gujral
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Gujral
Taran Gujral, PhD
- Professor, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch
- Member, Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC), Fred Hutch
- Affiliate Professor in Pharmacology, , University of Washington
Background
Dr. Taran Gujral is a systems biologist who takes a big-picture, multidisciplinary approach to studies of cell-cell interactions. He investigates both tumor cells and their microenvironment — the noncancerous cells that surround them. Interactions among the cancerous and noncancerous cells in a tumor influence how well it grows, spreads and resists treatment. Dr. Gujral is looking inside and outside tumor cells to discover the molecular programs initiated by these interactions. He is developing methods to preserve the 3D structure of a tumor in the lab so that he can examine how tumor architecture affects cancer cell behavior. Dr. Gujral also works to develop better ways to screen potential cancer drugs.
Current Projects
Precision Oncology in Rare Cancers. Dr. Gujral’s lab addresses the challenges of rare and hard-to-treat cancers by developing new preclinical models and applying innovative systems pharmacology tools. By combining patient-derived tumor models such as 3D microtumors, with computational approaches, the lab identifies new therapeutic targets and opportunities to repurpose existing drugs. These efforts aim to capture the complexity of tumor-host interactions and accelerate the discovery of effective treatments, particularly for rare liver cancers and other under-studied malignancies.
Signaling in the Tissue Microenvironment. Investigating cellular interactions within the tissue microenvironment continues to be a technical challenge. Dr. Gujral’s lab has optimized procedures for maintaining organotypic tumor tissue preparations and is developing techniques to manipulate and monitor specific cells within the tumor microenvironment. With these tools, his lab explores how cancer cells interact with the surrounding cells and infiltrating immune cells.
Targeting Kinases with Network Pharmacology. The Gujral lab develops computational tools for evaluating the many potential clinical applications of kinase inhibitors. Kinases represent a core group of enzymes involved in most cellular responses to stimuli and represent an important target for existing therapeutics for cancer, inflammation, and other disease states. Application of these tools will yield insights into the basic biology of kinases as well as advance pharmacological exploitation of these key cellular regulators.